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The Spectacle Blog
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is leaving the Obama Administration. LaHood was one of those bureaucrats behind the curtain, little-known but with an outsize impact. His tenure, flamboyant in its statism even by Obama standards, can be summed up in two of his quotes. The first, referring positively to one of his DOT policies, is: “It is a way to coerce people out of their cars.” The second is: “People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.”
LaHood tossed billions of dollars in grants at rail projects and bike paths. He worked with the EPA to clamp down on car mileage standards. He bullied states into cracking down on drivers using cell phones. And he was, of all things, a Class of ‘94 Republican congressman, allowing Obama to perpetuate his “team of rivals” canard.
He stepping down now, presumably to spend more time with his moped. You can read more about him in my 2010 piece here, and John Fund’s here.
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More Blog Posts by Matt Purple
http://spectator.org/blog/2013/01/29/checking-under-lahood
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Tafuna| 1.29.13 @ 6:14PM
Ray LaHood was from my home district where I grew up so I'm quite familiar with him. He may have been elected in the Class of '94 Republicans, but he wasn't part of the revolution that swept Congress that year. He was Bob Michael's chief of staff, and Michael, the long time House Minority Leader decided not to run because he knew that Newt Gingrich would challenge him for the leadership position and win. Republicans were tired of Michael's "go along and get along" stance with the Democrats, and many were anxious to go with more aggressive leadership. So unlike other newcomer Republicans who ran for Congress that year, LaHood was part of the Old Guard.
LaHood was a terrible, terrible congressman. Michael might have been non-aggressive but LaHood was positively a squish. His whole outlook was liberal, but as the district was solidly conservative, he had to fake his ideology. In other words, he was a classic RINO.
My late mother, a conservative Repubican to the core, could not stand LaHood. She loathed seeing him ride in local parades. I think a good many folks back home felt similarly as he would likely have been primaried had he not stepped down on his own. When he took a position in the Obama regime, I thought he'd found a natural home. He should have been a Democrat from the very start.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 1.29.13 @ 8:40PM
I always had the feeling that he was as you described. Thank you for corroborating my hunch.
Marc Jeric| 1.29.13 @ 11:53PM
That revolutionary marxist has been in charge of the "green energy" boondoggle. His list of babkrupt green companies is long:
These are some of Obama’s “green energy” enterprises financed by taxpayers:
Solar Trust of America: bankrupt;
Bright Source: bankrupt;
Solyndra: bankrupt - ($535 Million)
LSP Energy: (Light Squared); bankrupt;
Energy Conversion Devices: bankrupt;
Abound Solar: bankrupt;
SunPower: bankrupt;
Beacon Power: bankrupt;
Ecotality: bankrupt;
A123 Solar: bankrupt;
Azure Dynamics: bankrupt
Evergreen Solar: ($5.3 Million); bankrupt;
Ener1: bankrupt;
Geothermal Power ($98.5 million); bankrupt;
Embraer of Brazil ($1 billion); gone;
Siga Technology Inc ($433 million); bankrupt;
Granite Reliable Wind Generation ($168.9 million); bankrupt;
Tonopah Solar Company - Crescent Dunes ($737 million); bankrupt;
CH2M Hill ( $2 Billion); bankrupt;
Spectra Watt ($500,000) bankrupt;
Mountain Plaza ($424,000) bankrupt;
UniSolar: bankrupt.
The list is growing daily. Why? Because there is no such energy – it is against the immutable laws of thermodynamics – first and second.